What is the bucket handle in the knee? my husband tore his acl & rcl and has a flipped bucket handle what does this mean?

The : The knee has 2 "compartments" between the thigh bone (femur) and shin bone (tibia). The bones are covered with end cartilage--the smooth, hard cartilage that makes the joint glide. Between these 2 bones is the shock-absorber cartilage, called the meniscus. There is a meniscus for each of these compartments. When the mensicus is torn, it can have different patterns of injury. The "bucket handle" tear is when the meniscal cartilage tears around the edge, creating an inner and outer portion. The inner portion can then flip up into the joint, like a bucket handle. It can block knee motion and damage the joint cartilage. It sounds like your husband had a pretty significant injury to his knee. I'm not sure what you mean by "rcl"--the other ligaments in the knee are the posterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament, and lateral collateral ligament. The acl is the anterior cruciate ligament and is commonly torn in twisting injuries. If he has injury to the acl, the mensicus, and one of the collateral ligaments, it is called an "unhappy triad" and usually is the result of a high impact injury to the side of the knee. He should be seen by an orthopaedic surgeon with sports medicine training. Depending on his age and activity level, he may or may not require ligament repair/reconstruction, but an unstable mensicus tends to be problematic and require surgery.

Dr Chimenti and another doctor agreed

Big tear : It means that the tear is very big and can cause the knee to lock up and be painful. In your husbands case the year is so big that the torn portion flipped from its normal position and lodged itself in the middle if the knee joint. He will probably need surgery